All Photos by Brandon White
taken on July 13, 2020 to document the Saskatoon Event:
“Suicide Loss for Survivors” organized by Amanda Sanderson: CEO and Owner of S.H.B Apparel
Attended by Tristen Durocher & Chris Merasty as they to the Regina Legislature.
Updates: Walking with Our Angels on Facebook
#yanawansca on Twitter
Donations for Walkers: westandtogether@menofthenorth.net
The Walkers ended their day on Tuesday roughly 12 kilometers north of Duck Lake, then drove to attend the 7:30 PM event in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; the event featured several (5) speakers.
S.H.B. is an acronym for Spirit of a warrior, Hope for the future and the Beauty of Life; the brand was created, in part, to provide solidarity for youth, women and men who are struggling with suicide–says owner Amanda Sanderson.
Sanderson says she was driven to form the company in response to her own daughters’ struggles with suicidal ideation.
After a ceremonial smudge by Mr. Durocher, the event commenced with the first speaker FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron:
Cameron spoke about ‘still blaming himself’ after a family suicide earlier in his career.
YXE Hip Hop Artist and Poet Beary Daniels (Brennan Daniels) attended the event and spoke about his use of Artistry and Music as cathartic medicine.
Tristen Durocher referred to their walk – from Northern Saskatchewan to Regina along the Louis Riel Trail – as a kind of pilgrimage: not just for the living, but for those Lost Too Soon who the Elders say still may wander.
Durocher’s melodic playing rang out across the South Saskatchewan River; onlookers stopped, if only for a moment, and were struck by the foreign sound coming from the Vimy Ridge Memorial.
Context: First Nations and Metis soldiers proved capable and, indeed critical, during many Canadian armed conflicts–including World War 1 (that included Vimy Ridge), 2, and countless others. In fact, more than 4,000 status Indians enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (not including Metis and Inuit).
Tristen Durocher has owned ‘6 or 7’ fiddles in his lifetime, and is self-taught. He’d rather not give overwhelmingly white Institutions the pride of calling him an Alumnus, he says; ‘my music should always come from the heart’.
Members of the public attended, and were offered food, face masks, and hand sanitizer for any who needed.
Patrolling foot-police were not aware made aware of the event, but stopped to greet Indigenous Youth who approached them.
Christopher Merasty spoke about his own family’s near-miss with Suicide, and about the Eagle Staff and its cultural significance; the staff was gifted to him by the Beardy’s & Okemasis’ Cree Nation following a sweat.
The candle flames were started by S.H.B CEO and event organizer Amanda Sanderson, and passed to others in the audience. Above: walker Myles passes his flame to NDP MLA Nicole Rancourt, of Prince Albert Northcote.
Members of the public shelter their flames, allusions to the delicate nature of young lives remained unsaid, implied.
Powerful women of the Prince Albert-Based Walking Out of Darkness group attended, and have been walking with Durocher and Merasty since meeting at the Prince Albert Grant Council.
Walking out of Darkness is a not-for-profit advocacy group that seeks to raised awareness about suicide at the community-level.
The faces of those who, like Amanda, Tristen, and Chris, want More for mental health in SK.
FSIN Chief expressing some Indigenuity in the prairie winds.
All speakers receiving Gifts.
The Walkers are Expected to Enter Saskatoon on Friday, July 17 2020 at roughly 2 PM.